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PROPOSED RESOLUTION
PROPOSED RESOLUTION COMMEMORATING THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE KRI?JANIS BARONS LATVIAN SCHOOL OF CHICAGO
WHEREAS The Kri?janis Barons Latvian School of Chicago, located at 6551 W. Montrose Ave is this year celebrating its 75th anniversary. Since 1950 Latvian School of Chicago has dedicated itself to preserving the Latvian language, culture, music, history and traditions through its classes for children in kindergarten through high school; and
WHEREAS The school is named after Kri?janis Barons, a 19th Century writer known among Latvians as the "father of the daimas," traditional Latvian folk songs and poems. More than 1.2 million folk music texts and 30,000 melodies have been identified in Latvian culture; and
WHEREAS the Republic of Latvia is a representative democracy of about 1.8 million people in northern Europe and between the Baltic Ocean on the west and Russia to the east. The Latvian people, who trace their roots back 3,000 years to Baltic tribes, have endured centuries of rule by Teutonic, Swedish, Polish-Lithuanian and Russians; and
WHEREAS in 1905, after a failed uprising against Russian rule, Latvians began moving to the United States and hundreds settled in Chicago; and
WHEREAS at the beginning of World War II, the Soviet Union forcibly annexed Latvia, murdering or deporting at least 34,250 Latvians, including administrators who were replaced with Soviet cadres. Only Soviets could run for office. In 1941, Nazi Germany invaded and occupied Latvia, killing at least 60,000 Jews. In 1944 the Soviet Union invaded and re-occupied Latvia for the next 45 years; and
WHEREAS after World War II tens of thousands of Latvian refugees in Western Europe could not return to their homeland. Many came to the United States, and hundreds joined the Latvian community in Chicago; and
WHEREAS Latvian folk songs emerged as a means for Latvia and the other Baltic nations to finally achieve independence from the Soviet Union in the "Singing ...
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